5 HISTORICAL ITALIAN HOLIDAYS
Nick Trend picks places to stay where you can step back into the past
1
TEMPLE VIEWS
Some of the best ruins that survive from the ancient Greeks are not in Greece, but at Agrigento, Sicily, once one of the richest of its colonies. Among the ruins on a beautiful site overlooking the south coast are those of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the largest Doric temple ever constructed.
2
THE ROAD FROM ROME
The ancient Via Appia Antica (Appian Way) was first constructed in 312BC to connect Rome with Brindisi in southeastern Italy. It still exists — in places as a road, in places a paved path, and is lined by vestiges of its once great past. On Sunday mornings, when the first section leading out of the city is closed to traffic, it is an excellent walk.
3
IN HANNIBAL’S FOOTSTEPS
Hannibal, the general from Carthage (modern-day Tunis), marched from Spain to Italy with 50,000 men and 40 elephants in 218BC — one of military history’s most brilliant surprise strategies. His exact route across the Alps is not known, but you can follow it in spirit by bike on an escorted two-week Ride and Seek tour from Barcelona to Alba (rideandseek.com).
You’ll need to be fit — it includes some testing Alpine climbs.
4
CASANOVA’S VENICE
One of the great lost experiences of Venice is the grand arrival. In a city built to display immense wealth, virtually all of the palazzi and elite buildings were designed with their formal entrance, the porta d’acqua, opening directly on to the water. The only Venice hotel where this entrance still has an authentic feel is the Aman
(aman.com), housed in a 16th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal.
5
ROMANTIC TRAGEDY
The last weeks of John Keats’s short life were spent in Rome, where he had gone in the hope that a warmer climate would help his consumption. The room where he died overlooks the Spanish Steps and the apartment is a museum dedicated to his and Percy Shelley’s stays in the city. It’s an incredibly moving place and you can feel even more part of it by staying in the small apartment on the floor immediately above:
landmarktrust.org .— © The Telegraph, London